Posh Super Bowl Poppers

Though Michael and I will never turn down a good old fashion dog in a bun with some ketchup, we want to elevate one of our fave finger food snacks. There are a few things in life that scream Super Bowl, nachos, chili, beer, hot dogs….and jalapeno poppers. To make the popper posh, we have stuffed the jalapeno with goat cheese and portabello mushrooms, and wrapped it in serrano ham. Maybe we can toss the beer aside and have some bubbly instead!!!

Happy Super Bowl!!!

Ingredients: makes 5

5 large jalapenos

1 oz goat cheese

1 large portabello mushroom

5 slices serrano ham

1 teaspoon olive oil

Toothpicks



Start by preheating oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the jalapenos by cutting the stem off, and slicing one side pen all the way to the tip. Using a spoon scrape out all the seeds and everything inside. Set aside.

Pull stem off of mushroom, and using a spoon scrape the gills off the bottom, and then clean with water, then dice into small pieces. Heat the oil in a small sauté pan, and sweat the mushroom until they are cooked.

In a small mixing bowl, mix together goat cheese and mushroom. Stuff the jalapenos so that they are completely filled with the cheese/ mushroom mix. Don’t overstuff though, because it will seep out in the oven.

Next to wrap the jalapenos take one serrano slice, and pull in half. Take one piece of serrano and wrap it from end to end, then the other piece around the body. Secure with a tooth pick.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

Tada!!! We hope your team wins!

 

Korean- Italian Chili!

Super bowl is right around the corner, it finally drizzled for 2 seconds, and there was a chili cook-off! Do we need more reasons for a delicious chili? Not just chili, but a Korean Italian chili? I will say no more!!!

*PS Kochucara is a wonderful  Korean powdered chili, and Gochujang is an equally wonderful Korean chili paste!

Ingredients: serves 10

5 lbs ground beef
3 lbs ground pork
5 large spicy Italian sausages
3 yellow onions
1 ½ bunches scallions
5 cloves garlic
1 cup Hoisin
¾ cup Gochujang
1/3 cup Kochucara
2 cups orange juice
2 cups tomato sauce
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
3 cans kidney beans
4 Tablespoons olive oil
4 jalapenos
2 Serrano chilies
¼ cup red wine

To start it all off create your mise en place by cubing the yellow onions, slicing the scallions, macerating the garlic, and dicing the peppers (be careful to not touch your face and wash hands after touching pepper!) Also set aside two large sauce pans, and one spaghetti pot.

In a large bowl take sausage out of the casings, and mix together with ground pork, ground beef, garlic, and scallions.

In both sauce pan heat equal amounts of olive oil. When oil is heated sauté equal amounts of yellow onion in each until becoming translucent.  Add the meat mix and mash it up into smaller pieces. Let cook about 15 minutes, turning over to let cook all the way through.

Transfer to spaghetti pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and let cook for about 1 hour on medium low heat, stirring every 15 minutes so that the bottom doesn’t burn.

While it cooks over the hour test the flavor, it will change over time. You may want to add more spice, or cool it out with more orange juice. Be the master of your own chili!

Spicy Sweet Infused Vodka Cocktail with a Chili Salt Rim!

Happy Labor Day!

August was an extremely busy month, there were bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, bridal showers, and yesterday a wedding! Two of our closest friends Dan Perozzi and Danté Cox married yesterday in a beautiful ceremony in Malibu among close friends. Everyone chipped in to make this a gorgeous wedding; our contribution was to make jams as wedding party favors!

To relax after a jam packed month of stuff, and to celebrate Labor Day and embrace the dwindling last days of summer; we have for you a tasty jalapeño, red bell pepper, and strawberry cocktail with a chili salt rim. It is perfect to wake up your pallet and bring a bit of the heat which we all love about summer.  

This recipe is basically an infused vodka recipe, which we then used to make a cocktail!

Ingredients:

Infused vodka:

1 liter vodka

1 large red bell pepper

1 medium jalapeño

2 cups strawberries

Cocktail:

1 lime

2 oz. vodka

2 oz. sparkling water

1 Tbsp. kosher salt

1 Tbsp. chili powder

 

Allow at least 2 days to infuse the vodka, the longer you infuse the more depth of flavor you will achieve.

In a container pour our vodka, diced bell pepper, diced strawberry, and diced and de-seeded jalapeño. (Save the vodka bottle to later put infused vodka back in).

Keep the mix in a cool dark place, and stir at least three times a day.

Once you feel that you have adequately infused your vodka, take all the fruit and vegetables out, and pour back into the vodka bottle and re-label!

Assembling the cocktail is the easy part. On a plate mix salt and cayenne, and using back of spoon crush up some of the salt into finer pieces. Cut lime into quarters, and taking one quarter rim the glass. Next rim the glass with salt cayenne mix.

If you have a martini shaker use it, if not I am sure you can find a way to mix the drink together! Mix
2 oz of your vodka with 2 oz fizzy water, and pour into cocktail glass, squeeze a lime quarter in, and bam….drink it!

Have a blast! Drink safely!

Mardi Gras Cornbread Fritters with a Sazerac Cocktail!!

Mardi Gras is the last day of rich eating, the day before Ash Wednesday when lent begins. Literally translated Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. This is the last day in which people celebrate and eat all of the rich things that they love, before repenting their sins and fasting for religious obligations. This has become a great time of religious celebrations throughout the world. Families join together, eat great food, drink great beverages, and in many cases attend grand festivals. Living in Venice I feel that every day is a Mardi Gras festival; the amount of colorful people that live in the area, all the fur covered bikes, random beads, and all around kookooness that occurs. This is one of the many reasons that we love living here.

When we think of Mardi Gras, Mikey and I think of New Orleans and all of the great Southern food that there is. We think delicious flavors, a little spice, some gooiness, and maybe something a little fried. To mix all this goodness together we created a jalapeno cheddar corn bread fritters! Not to mention the traditional southern drink of Sazerac to accompany it! Nothing says Mardi Gras like a fritter with some booze!

*We used an ice cream scooper to make perfect dollops of fritter.

* The best way to tell if oil is ready to fry things in is to put a little water on your fingers and flick it in the oil, (from far away as to not burn yourself), and if it sizzles you are ready.

Ingredients:
 Fritters: makes about a dozen

1 ½ cups plus 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 jalapeno
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups cornmeal
2 teaspoons sugar
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Sazerac: makes 1 drink

3 oz rye whiskey
¾ oz simple syrup
Splash of peychaud bitters
Lemon twist
½ a tangerine

Make this lovely cocktail by measuring out your whiskey, add your simple syrup and stir it in. Splash it off with the bitters, and take half of a tangerine and squeeze it in to add a new tangy twist to this classic. To make a lemon twist, using a peeler, peel a 3 inch long strip of rind, take a knife to cut as a straight line, and twist around your finger to curl it.

For the fritters start by shredding one cup of cheddar cheese, and seeding and dicing one jalapeno. In a large and deep sauce pan heat the 1 ½ cups oil on a medium high heat.

In a medium size bowl mix all the dry ingredients together. In a small bowl whisk the egg and 2 Tablespoons of oil together. Pour in to the dry ingredients, followed by the milk, mix until most clumps are gone. Mix in the jalapeno and cheddar cheese.

Take whatever you are using to scoop your mix out, and dollop about 2 Tablespoons out into the hot oil. Fit as many as you can in the oil at once. Take a large plate and lay paper towels out so that as you are making your fritters you can place on towel to soak as much extra oil out as possible.

Cook on one side until golden brown, then flip, until golden brown all over. Lay on paper towel, wait to cool, and serve with the delectable cocktail you created! Now go collect as many beads as you can! Hoorah!

Pre Bowl Bacon Jalapeno Cheese Dip!

Most all of our friends live on one block in Venice right off the beach, so whenever there is a festive gathering, it tends to always happen on this street as a block party. So for this Super Bowl we are going to the annual block party. There will be a ton of grilling, friends, dogs running around, beers, chili, and our friend Brandon and Marie’s beautiful baby boy Josiah. What Mikey and I are bringing to the party involve our fabulous selves, some bomb cheese dip, and some mind blowing chili!

So here is the recipe for this preposterously dangerous cheese dip, it is simple, packs a punch, and will have your inner bacon lover squealing (no pun intended)!

*Serve with some crispy chips, or on nachos, whatever you want!

Ingredients: serves 4-8 depending on cheese dip addiction

4 slices smoked bacon
1 jalapeno
1 cup whole milk
1 cup shredded jack cheese
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1 small tomato

Start by seeding and dicing your jalapeno as small as you can, and seeding and dicing the tomato at a normal size. 

In a medium sized sauce pan cook the four slices of bacon until crisp. Once done, remove from pan, and drain about half of the bacon fat out. In the same pan with remaining bacon fat bring milk to a simmer, whisking to incorporate the bacon flavor in the milk.

While that comes to a simmer chop up the bacon into little bits. Once milk is brought to a simmer, dump all of the cheese into it, constantly whisking while the cheese melts. Once the cheese melts whisk in bacon bits and jalapeno. Whisk for another minute.

Now pour the cheese dip into a serving bowl and garnish with diced tomato and a few diced pieces of jalapeno, and get ready to dip in! Enjoy that cheesy goodness!